Dougie Hamilton got in 39 playoff games with the Niagara IceDogs the last two years, helping them reach the OHL finals last year.

He’s played in the past two World Junior Championships, a tournament that Canadians treat as representative of the nation’s health.

Yet those appeared like exhibition games compared to what he observed from the press box Wednesday night when the Bruins faced the Maple Leafs in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

"The extra stuff guys are willing to put in, you can definitely see that and just more excitement in the game," Hamilton said.

In Saturday’s Game 2, there’s a good chance the 19-year-old Hamilton will get to experience that from ice level.

The Bruins have an opening in their defensive six-pack after Andrew Ference was suspended Thursday for one game for his hit to Mikhail Grabovski’s head.

Although coach Claude Julien wouldn’t commit Friday to inserting Hamilton, all indications are that the rookie will be in the lineup. He spent much of Friday’s practice on the third pairing with Wade Redden while veteran Aaron Johnson was with Ference on an extra unit.

"He might be a young player for the playoffs, but to me, at this stage, the amount of games that he’s played, he’s a veteran," Julien said of Hamilton. "We don’t look at guys necessarily as rookies, we look at them as young players, but he’s a young player that’s going to be playing his first game if not tomorrow, soon.

"I think that’s the thing with him — he’s played enough hockey to understand what’s at stake here."

After breaking camp with the Bruins, Hamilton was solid and at times spectacular in the offensive zone in the first six weeks of the season. Although struggling with defensive positioning and matching up with bigger opponents, he had 12 points in his first 20 games and was a difference-maker with his vision from the point.

But when the schedule heated up, Hamilton wilted. In 22 games after March 7, he had just four points. The Bruins attributed that to a long season that began last August with a Canada-Russia exhibition series, half an OHL season, the WJC and a grinding NHL lockout season.

They rested him for a couple games. Then in the final week of the regular season, Julien committed to Adam McQuaid as the final right-shot defenseman in the lineup. Hamilton became the break-glass-in-case-of-emergency guy.

"I said to him, just to stay ready," McQuaid, who took Hamilton in as a roommate this season, said. "The chances are that in the playoffs, you’re going to need everybody at some point in time. That was about it, just to stay ready and keeping himself focused and making sure that everyone knows they’re a part of the team and an important part of the team, whether or not they’re in the lineup."

Page 2 of 2 - Hamilton has played just three games since April 11. The time off may have been just what he needed to recover from nine straight months of high-level games.

"I think it has been a little break from playing, so that should be good and I’m excited," Hamilton said.

Having a strictly right-side player replace Ference, who had been playing the left side, causes a domino effect throughout the Bruins’ lineup. The shutdown pairing of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg is broken up, with Seidenberg moving back to the left side and playing on the second pairing with Johnny Boychuk. Adam McQuaid skated with Chara in practice Friday.

The Bruins used the Chara-Seidenberg pairing against the Maple Leafs’ top line of James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak and Phil Kessel in Game 1. Kessel, seventh in the league with 52 points during the regular season, was held to one shot on goal.

With the pairing broken up, the Bruins will have to rely on more players against the Leafs’ top gunners.

"With Mac (McQuaid), it’s always confidence with the puck, it’s never about defending," Julien said. "Mac’s been a pretty good defender, physical, he can handle the speed, he can handle the size, so he’s probably been appreciated a lot that way."

Hamilton will step into a defensive core that played one of its best games in weeks Wednesday. The Bruins’ breakouts were crisp and contributed to their dominant puck possession. Ference was solid with his positioning and moving the puck.

It’ll be a test for Hamilton to keep up with that pace in his inaugural postseason game.

"I watched the first game and saw what it was like," Hamilton said. "Hopefully I can fit in and help the team win."

Dan Cagen can be reached at 508-626-3848 or dcagen@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanCagen.